


the boy with the blue eyes

by stover



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blade of Marmora Keith, Coffeeshop AU, Developing Romance, First Love, Friendship/Love, Jealousy, M/M, Moral Sacrifice, One-Sided Attraction, Protectiveness, intergalactic politics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-20 09:37:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10659855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stover/pseuds/stover
Summary: ‘He had blue eyes. He remembers that, at least. He doesn't remember much else.’2032: San Francisco, CADuring the duration of Prince Lotor’s intergalactic asylum on Earth, Keith struggles to keep his Prince from noticing a human boy named Lance.





	the boy with the blue eyes

**Author's Note:**

> This... isn't exactly your average coffeeshop AU.

"I thought you didn't like coffee." 

Keith looks up from the cracked screen of his laptop. The teasing grin of a pale-faced man with long, silvery hair makes his skin crawl and his stomach flip. He looks at his thermos to make sure the lid is shut tight before he answers. "I don't,” he says. “This is tea," he lies.

Lotor taps a finger against the side of his thermos. "Really? Where's the string and tag? I don’t see it.”

Keith yanks the white Starbucks thermos away. 

“Let me guess,” Lotor moves some strands of his silvery hair in front of his eyes, pulls a corner of his mouth downward in a sneer, and adopts a human accent. “You think a bag of crushed leaves can be used to make tea?” Then, Lotor blows the strands of hair out of his face. They fall back into his glinting eyes. "How’s that?"

It was a good impression, he has to say. But that’s not what he says. “My face doesn’t do that," he says, lips curling into a scowl.

A corner of Lotor's mouth twitches up and he grins. "Smile, sweet-cheeks," he says, poking at Keith's face. "You're going to be such a hideous creature if you keep making those faces. I hear human skin wrinkles terribly with age."

Keith keeps his scowl. "At least I won’t go blind from quintessence abuse."

Lotor doesn’t respond to that. Keith takes that as a chance to dive back to his work. As he does, he catches the way Lotor looks past him with narrowed eyes. 

Keith cranes his head around. Dead ahead is a boy with tousled brown hair and a cocky grin who’s too loud and makes too many gestures with his hands when he talks. But there’s a warmth in his eyes that digs into him, the kind of warmth he yearns for sometimes, on the rare occasions he has the luxury to remember — the warmth of family, the warmth of home.

“And here, I was beginning to think you were the most charming human I would ever encounter,” Lotor says as if he were talking about a new creature to take back to his ship. 

Keith turns quickly back to his laptop. His fingers type nonsense against the keyboard. “Are you saying I’m unattractive?”

Lotor laughs, amused. “Dreadfully so, I’m afraid.”

“My most deepest apologies,” he answers with biting sarcasm, still typing madly in the middle of his Earth literature paper. “How shall I appease you?”

“Well, you can’t now — Not after I’ve seen _him.”_

Keith stops typing, his fingers hovering above the keyboard. It lasts for a second before he resumes again. Quickly, he flicks his eyes on Lotor’s face, terrified that his ruse is now for naught.

It isn’t, because Lotor is too busy openly admiring the human behind the counter. "Look at those shoulders. And those arms — I bet he's got a great grip. And that smile, he's got a nice mouth on him, you see?" Lotor grins lazily, stretching back against his chair and folds his arms behind his head. Something gleams in Lotor's eyes. "I'd gladly eat him up."

Something hot churns in his stomach as ice plunges deep in his veins, making his heart stutter in his chest. "Stop it," Keith hisses, shutting his laptop. "You'll give us away."

Lotor's eyes flash yellow and his teeth turn sharp. "Let them. Let's see how Earth meat fares against the Galra."

"Well  _ I _ want to finish college." Keith gets up, the legs of his chair screeching loudly against the tiled floor. He ignores the amused look on Lotor's face as he hurriedly collects his things. "I'll see you later."

As he leaves, a ridiculous voice he's come to cherish calls after him—

"Come back soon, mullet man!"

Keith rushes out of the coffeeshop, ignoring the way Lotor was now blatantly staring at his retreating back.

**Author's Note:**

> "s-tover" on Tumblr.


End file.
